OPERATING PARTNER

Jelani is an Operating Partner at Rsquared, working directly with portfolio companies on people operations and culture — helping founders attract, recruit, and retain the talent that makes everything else possible.

Before joining the Rsquared ecosystem, he served in multiple executive roles at Wynn Las Vegas — a company that holds more Forbes Five Star awards than any other hotel group in the world — rising to VP of Human Resources and Culture with responsibility for more than 12,000 employees. In 2018, at the direction of the CEO, he created Wynn's department of Culture and Community from the ground up, focused on employee culture, leadership development, and community engagement — the kind of institutional culture-building that most startups don't attempt until it's too late. Prior to his private sector career, Jelani served 16 years as an officer in the United States Navy, deploying to more than 20 countries with extensive experience across the Middle East and Asia. He holds a B.S. in Political Science from the United States Naval Academy and is an honors graduate of the Defense Language Institute in classical Arabic.

At Rsquared, Jelani has worked with portfolio companies including Resilience, Rippl Care, City Therapeutics, and Overcast — embedding directly with founding teams at the moments when people decisions matter most.